Goodbye Gone
by Clary Adele Fairchild
Summary: Aria pulled Alison out of the grave that night. Little did she know that a simple action would forever change the rest of both of their lives. How will the two of them survive life on the run together?
1. It Happened That Night

I was in the Spencer's barn. It was nice to have a sleepover with my friends. Even though none of us were really alike, we had one thing in common: Alison. We were all friends with Alison. It started with me. I was the first one that she reached out to. I was still pretty sure that I was the one that she was closest to. I knew some of her secrets that not even the other girls knew. I was the only one that knew that her mom cheated on her dad. She told me when we found out that my dad was cheating on my mom. I wanted to tell my mom, but at the same time. I didn't want to break up my family.

Once we were at the party, Alison gave us some liquor to drink. I didn't like alcohol, so I faked drinking it. It seemed that I was convincing because the other girls bought it.

"Careful, Aria, any more and you'll tell us all your secrets." Emily joked before I let the liquid go back into the cup. It was actually something that Ali had taught me. We had been to a party together without the other girls. She told me that it was a good way to tell if a guy really liked you. She told me that guys sometimes slipped rape drugs into drugs and I shouldn't take drinks from just anyone.

We played a game of truth or dare before we went to bed. I had chosen truth because we were allowed to choose it once.

"Okay, which _Degrassi_ star would you rather date?" Alison asked. I tried to think of the names of the male actors. "Nina Dobrev or Shenae Grimes."

"Excuse me?" I responded in surprise. I couldn't believe that she had went there.

"Come on, every girl has some lesbian fantasies." Ali replied. "Which one do you think would be a better girlfriend?"

"Am I basing it off their characters or the actors?" I questioned.

"You can use whatever reasoning you'd like." Ali told me.

"Well if I'm basing it on the characters, I'd probably rather date Darcy but only if she came out of the closet. I wouldn't want to be anyone's secret girlfriend." I replied.

It wasn't too long before I noticed the other girls started feeling tired and we decided to go to bed. Spencer, Hanna, and Emily fell asleep before Ali and I did.

"You're not tired?" She asked in surprise.

"Not really. So how was visiting your grandma?" I replied.

"Boring. That woman doesn't know how to do anything fun." She stated. "I really think that you should tell your mom about what happened."

"I just don't want anything to change and I think it's over between him and that girl." I explained.

"Yeah, but how do you know that he won't cheat on her with another student?" She challenged.

"I want to believe in him." I admitted. "I know it might sound stupid, but I want to believe that he can change. Do you think my dad is a good person?"

She hesitated for a second.

"Ali, is there something that you know about him?" I asked.

"I don't know." She admitted. "It's hard for me to trust people and I can't tell if anyone is a good person right now."

"You can trust me." I assured her. I realized that I should have said us, but it was too late. "I'm your friend."

"Best friend." She corrected. "Just don't tell the others because it might make them jealous. I love all of you, but sometimes I wonder what it would be like if it was just the two of us."

I fell asleep before she did. I had some weird dreams and I couldn't help but wake up in the middle of the night. I checked the time and it was around 1:00. I couldn't help but notice that Ali wasn't in the barn. I thought about waking the others but I decided to just see if she went home. She lived next door after all. I went around the front and that was when I saw something truly bizarre across the street.

There was a hand sticking out of a patch of dirt. I then noticed that it was moving. Someone had been buried alive. I ran over, glad that no one seemed to be on the road at this time of night. I grabbed the hand and realized that it wasn't just anyone that had been buried. It was Alison. I hugged her tight as I noticed that she was still bleeding. I decided to rip part of my sweatshirt off and used it to cover the cut.

"Ali, what happened?" I asked. She was breathing heavily, but that could have been because she didn't have a lot of air.

"Someone attacked me. I didn't get to see who it was." She explained.

"Ali, you need to go to a hospital." I told her. "I'll call an ambulance."

"No, I can't stay here and wait. What if this person comes back?" She asked. "They could try to kill me again or us. I have to get out of here."

"If you don't want to wait for an ambulance, we can walk to the hospital." I suggested. "It'll get us some time to talk about why someone would want to kill you."

"Okay, but we need to go now. We can't go back and tell the girls." She stated. I nodded. Walking to the hospital would be difficult, but not impossible considering Rosewood was such a small town. "So over the past few months, someone has been sending me threatening messages. I don't know who it is. I've been trying to find out. I didn't expect any of you would be awake right now."

"Why not?" I inquired.

"I mixed some sleeping pills into that liquor I gave you." She admitted. "I just had to make sure that none of you were behind it, but I guess you didn't drink, did you?"

"How could you do that?" I challenged. I was hurt. I wasn't going to lie and say that I wasn't hurt.

"It was the best idea that I could come up with on short notice." She explained. "I told you that I have issues trusting people."

"Well I promise you that I had nothing to do with whatever was going on." I declared.

As we continued walking, we heard a siren. Ali quickly pulled me into the bushes as the police car drove by. I was very confused.

"Why did you do that?" She asked.

"Because Garrett was driving that car." She answered.

"Garrett as in your brother's friend?" I questioned.

"Yeah, he was one of the only people that I suspected that I couldn't meet with. For all I know, he's the one who tried to kill me. I can't go to the hospital. I have to get out of here."

"Ali, calm down." I told her.

"I have to leave Rosewood. I don't know who did it. I can't stay here while I try to find out." She remarked. "I have to leave tonight. I can't stay here."

"I'm not letting you go anywhere alone, especially when you're like this." I replied. I had never seen her so panicked before.

"Then you have to come with me. I have some money. We can go to the bus station and then to the airport." She proposed.

"But what about our families, our friends?" I challenged. "We can't just run away."

"We have to…I have to anyway. I can't stay here and it'll probably be easier if we stay together." She responded.

"Okay, but I don't want to go to the airport." I remarked. "I don't want to go too far away. And we're only going to be away until we can find out who did this to you."

"There's one more thing. We can't tell anyone where we are, not even your brother." She said. "We have to give up all direct contact with everyone and we can't let anyone find us either, but we won't be alone. We'll have each other."

"Okay." I agreed before I took her to the bus station. I hoped that I wasn't making a mistake, but at the moment, I knew that I wanted to do it. I was going on a journey with Ali.

So that was the prologue. What kind of adventures will Aria and Alison get into while they're on the run? Will their bond strengthen? Will anyone find them? Please don't forget to review.


	2. New York Minutes

I wasn't sure what we were going to do. We didn't really have a plan on where to go. We didn't have much of a plan at all. I didn't know what we were supposed to do about school, but I knew that I couldn't use my real name. I supposed the first thing that we needed to do was find a place to stay for the night. By now it was about 3:00. I couldn't remember the last time that I stayed up so late. I was tired because I was running on like three hours of sleep. It wasn't the easiest to keep walking, even though it was just walking onto a bus.

"Ali, where are we going to sleep?" I asked as we went to our seats.

"I know a few places." She replied. "I have a few connections that I never told you about, but it's good to know people in case you ever have to ask them for a favor. I guess for right now, we can sleep on the bus, but we'll need to set a timer so we don't miss our stop."

"What is our stop?" I inquired. I had let her decide where we going because I really didn't have a clue. I was still having trouble believing that this was real. It felt like it was a dream. I had to pinch myself to make sure that it wasn't.

"Manhattan." She replied. "It'll be after dawn. I think a big city is a good place to hide out and I also know a guy who has a place."

"Are you going to tell me who this guy is?" I questioned.

"I will, just not right now." She promised. "Now we should try to sleep. We'll be there in about three hours."

I set the timer on my phone for 2 hours and 45 minutes, so we would have a little bit extra time in case we got there early. I then went back to sleep leaning against her.

Soon the alarm went off and I could see that we were in New York. I hadn't been there in a while. Soon we pulled into the bus station and we got out. It seemed that we had nothing but the undisclosed amount of money Alison had and our phones.

"Okay, so the first thing that we need to do is change our appearances." She stated as we got off the bus. "People are going to start looking for us soon and we can't have the same clothes or hair."

We headed to a drug store and bought a few things of hair dye. She was going to dye her hair brown and I was going to dye mine blonde.

"I wish we didn't have to do this." She said once we were in the bathroom. "Your hair looks so good, but desperate times call for desperate measures."

"Ali, you still have a lot to tell me." I pointed out as I opened the box.

"Okay, fine, what do you want to know?" She asked.

"Well, for starters, who is this guy that has this place?" I responded.

"His name is Ezra. He goes to Hollis but he's from around here. His family owns a theater that we can stay in at least for a few nights." She explained. I was about to ask how she knew him. "We had a fling in the spring."

"Are you sure that he'll let us stay there?" I inquired. I was not sure that asking her ex for a place to stay was the best idea.

"He will once I call him." She replied. "But we're have to get new phones first."

"Do you think that they'll try to track us?" I questioned.

"Anyone smart will." She answered. "Plus A has my number and it could allow them to find me."

"Why don't we just turn off the GPS?" I questioned.

"We could do that, but then we wouldn't be able to use it for directions." She pointed out. "I'm going to get a new phone, but I guess you can do whatever you want. Even if you keep it, you'll need a new SIM card so Verizon can't find you."

"How long do you think this will take, Ali?" I asked her.

"I don't know." She admitted. "I wish I could tell you that it's going to be soon, but I don't think that it's safe for me to be in Rosewood right now. I don't know who tried to kill me or if it was even the same person that was sending me messages. I think I made some enemies and now they want me dead."

"Have you ever thought about making amends with people?" I asked. I would think that could be an option.

"I can't do that right now." She said. "It's too soon for any of that. It's harder to talk to someone when they want to kill you. Now we should see about getting some new clothes."

I still couldn't believe that I was seeing Ali like this. I had never seen her so vulnerable and so scared before. I wanted to do whatever I could to cheer her up. Maybe I could find a way to make her laugh. Of course, that might be hard since I didn't find myself particularly funny. The two of us then headed to a clothing store. I hoped that it wasn't one of the expensive ones because we needed to save our money for food. Come to think of it, we probably should have gotten some breakfast.

We went to the store and grabbed a red, black, and white plaid shirt with a beige cami underneath and a pair of black jeans. It was definitely different blonde hair and it was also different seeing Ali with brown hair. She had chosen a black and white gradient dress that went to her knees with a black cardigan. She always managed to look good in whatever she wore. We went into the dressing room together.

"So, have you thought about what your name is going to be?" Alison asked as we started to undress.

"I have no idea how to do that." I replied.

"Well I got mine from making an anagram of Vladimir Nabokov, which of Vivian Darkbloom." She explained. "Maybe you could do the same."

"Okay, so Mary Shelley gives me Haley…I think I'll go with a character name. How does Alice Brandon sound?" I asked.

"Since I don't know who that is, I guess it'll work." She told me. How did she not know that?

"It's Alice from _Twilight."_ I declared. Speaking of which, I really hoped that I would get a chance to see that new movie. Ideally, we would be done by then.

"I thought her name was Cullen." She replied.

"That was her name after she became a vampire. Her real is Mary Alice Brandon. Didn't you read the _Midnight Sun_ manuscript?" I asked.

"No, and you're kind of a dork for doing that." She joked. I pouted. "But you're still a cute dork."

From there, we went to get some food. Like with clothes, New York had some expensive places we could eat, but we went to IHOP. There probably wasn't a better place to get pancakes anyway.

"So, are we going to just stay at this theater for the rest of the day?" I questioned.

"Of course not, Darling." She responded. I couldn't help but blush. "We're going to do something fun. I think we should go to the Yankees game."

"But you don't even like the Yankees." I pointed out. "Plus, don't we need to find out who A is."

"That may be true, but it's the best that I could come up with." She declared. "We can't just not have any fun. Every once in a while, we have to do things in between trying to solve the mystery or we'll go insane."

"Okay, but I am not wearing a jersey." I declared.

The game was actually part of a doubleheader, but we didn't go to both games. It looked like Ali had thousands of dollars on her. Now I understood why she bought a purse with a wallet.

"Are you going to tell how you got all of that money?" I questioned.

"Extortion." She replied. "I thought it might come in handy if I ever needed to run away." She answered. "I got it from Ian. Turns out he's a total perv. It wasn't Toby spying on us after all. I guess it's too late now. I would have more, but your dad wouldn't give me any."

"Ali, can we please not break the law?" I questioned.

"We're already breaking the law, Aria." She remarked. I supposed that was true, but I didn't like hearing about it. "But if it makes you feel better, I'll try to do it only when it's absolutely necessary. There will be times when it's necessary for us though."

Once we got to the stadium, Ali decided to ask a woman if she could borrow her phone. I assumed that she was calling Ezra.

"Hey, it's me. I'm sorry about last night, but I need a favor from you. I need a place to stay for a few nights. Can I tell the guards that you said it was okay for me to crash in the theater? Great, thanks." She replied before she hung up and gave the phone back.

The Yankees ended up winning the game as well as the next game of the doubleheader. It was a shame that they so evil because it was kind of fun watching them. Of course, that might have also had to do with the fact that I hadn't been to a baseball game in years.

That night, Ali decided to treat me to a Broadway show. It was something that I had never heard of, but it was still amazing just being there. Maybe she just wanted to show me how amazing New York could be. It was definitely amazing and I actually couldn't wait to see more of it. It almost made me forget the situation that we were in.

The theater that we would be sleeping in was called the Fitzgerald Theater. I seriously hoped that she knew what she was doing. I definitely did not want to get caught trespassing because I knew that would lead to us being sent back home. That was another reason we needed to keep lawbreaking to a minimum.

We didn't have any pajamas, so we basically had to sleep in our clothes. I decided to take my jeans off.

"Thanks for today." I told her.

"You never every day isn't going to be like this." She remarked. "I just wanted to show you something great, but there probably won't be another like it for a while. We are going to need to find ways to make the money last. I'm going to do my best to make sure that we never have to sleep on the street. We'll probably have to leave New York eventually. I know it's very big, but we won't be able to stay here forever. Sometimes, it'll be cold. I just want to remind you that this isn't a vacation. Our lives may never be the same. There's even a chance that we may never go back to Rosewood."

"Do you want to go back?" I questioned. "It doesn't have to be right now, but would you want to go back, especially if A wasn't around?"

"Of course I would." She answered. "I miss my family. I really do love them, even my brother and I miss the girls. I wish that I could tell them that I'm okay, but I can't, we can't. I don't want to do this, but we don't have a choice. We're going to go through this one day at a time. Now, it's probably best for us to get some sleep."

"Good night, Ali." I told her.

"Night, Aria." She reciprocated before I went to sleep.

So, they went to New York and Ezra helped them out. It started out with a day of fun, but the times will get harder. What kind of hardships will they face? Please don't forget to review.


	3. Gossip with the Wind

We had been in New York for a few days. I knew that we wouldn't be able to stay in the theatre for much longer because people would start to get suspicious. I couldn't help but wonder if Ali had any other mysterious connections that we could use. I did know that she was good at manipulating people and we could probably use that to our advantage. As long as we weren't robbing people, it would probably be okay. I did realize that they may come a point that we might have to rob people, but for now, we didn't have.

'So do you have any idea who A is?" I asked.

"The only people that I can think of are the people that I don't expect." She said. "I can't help but think that maybe it isn't an adult but rather someone at school instead. They probably think that they're going to get away with this, but they're not."

"Alison, you can't kill this person." I told her.

"Aria, do you really think that I'm capable of murder?" She asked.

"Didn't you push that girl down the stairs at that party?" I questioned. I always wondered about that. She had disappeared during the party.

"That girl fell." She responded. "She was drunk and fell down the stairs. Just because something looks suspicious doesn't mean that it is."

"I don't know if you can just apply Occam's Razor to everything." I pointed out. I noticed that she smiled.

"Have I ever told that you're cute when you say something smart?" She asked. I frowned. "I don't mean that in a condescending way. I mean intelligence looks good on you. It's not like with Spencer how she sometimes comes off as so smart to the point of haughtiness. I like how you don't feel like you need to be a know-it-all. Also, Spencer could never tell me who the next big rock band is going to be like you."

"I still think it's going to be Hey Monday. Female-fronted rock bands are the future." I replied.

"I agree." A girl interrupted. The two of us turned to see a tall girl with blonde hair who probably a year older than us standing there. She was wearing a leather jacket and what appeared to be a school uniform of some kind. The two of us looked at us. "Sorry, I don't mean to eavesdrop, but I heard you talking about Hey Monday and no one ever talks about Hey Monday. I'm Jenny."

"Vivian." Alison remarked. Oh, right, we were using fake names.

"And I'm Alice." I replied. "What school do you go to?"

"This is the uniform from Constance Billard School for Girls." She said. "I take it you two aren't from around here."

To be honest, she didn't sound like she was from New York either.

"Where do you go to school?" She questioned. Crap, I never thought of how to answer that question. I hoped Alison knew what to say.

"Where we go to school is not important." She stated. I supposed that would work. "That's an interesting look you have."

"All of the girls at school wear them." Jenny declared. "Of course, you're looking at the girl who started the trend."

"You don't look like the trendsetter type." Ali remarked.

"Well looks can be deceiving. I'm the most popular girl in school." Jenny replied.

"I wouldn't mind going to your school." I muttered. "Did I just say that out loud?"

"I bet I can make it happen. Just say the word you can be there by Monday." She said.

"I don't think you have that kind of power." I pointed out.

"Of course, I don't, but my stepmom does. She's a donor at the school and she would be able to get you in." Jenny explained.

"We don't have transcripts or immunization records." Alison replied.

"Please, if I've learned anything living here, it's that money can buy you most things, even if I don't like it." Jenny said.

"We're not really interested." Alison declared.

"Vivian, can we talk alone." I requested before I took her to the bathroom. "Do you really think that we can just go all of this skipping school?"

"We probably could get away with it." She pointed out. "And like I said, it's not like any school would take us when we don't even have any identification."

"Maybe we should at least get to know her. You know that making friends is the easiest way to survive out here." I remarked. Plus, I really liked her style.

"Fine, but I seriously don't think that money alone can get us into a fancy private school." She said before the two of us went back out to Jenny, who was still standing there. I couldn't help but wonder if she had moved at all. "I'd like to meet this stepmother of yours. I want to know if she can really work the magic that you say that she can."

Okay, so that was not the answer that I was expecting. I realized that I probably shouldn't have been surprised. Alison did have trust issues and she also was good at reading people. If anyone would be able to tell if this woman really could help us, it would be her. I just hoped that she wouldn't be too demanding. One of Alison's weaknesses was that she could be a bit of a control freak sometimes.

"I guess I will have the limo come and take us there then." Jenny replied. "Have you ever ridden in a limo before?"

"A few times." I answered. My grandmother was very rich and she insisted on them whenever we visited her. The fact in the matter was we inherited a lot of her money. Most of it was kept in the bank. I knew there was a trust for college for me and Mike, even though we would get a family discount since if we went to the same university that Dad taught at. I just didn't want to be one of those spoiled rich girls. I hoped Jenny wasn't like that. She didn't seem to be at least.

Jenny lived in a mansion. They didn't have those in Rosewood, despite the fact that it was one of the richest cities in Pennsylvania. It was probably because the city council wouldn't allow mansions. Of course, I didn't think anyone really wanted mansions either, except for possibly the Vanderwaals.

"I'm home!" Jenny called into the house.

"And we brought friends with you." A man, who assumed was her dad declared. "You have friends from school your own age that aren't Eric?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that." Jenny stated. "Is Lily home?"

"She is not. She's in a meeting, but she'll probably be here soon." The man answered.

"I guess we'll wait for her in my room then." Jenny declared as she took us upstairs.

Jenny's room was kind of like mine. She even had some of the same posters that I did. The walls were painted a dark purple. She had all of the _Twilight_ books on her desk. I still was really hoping to see that new movie, even though Edward was kind of a jerk for leaving Bella. Anyway, it reminded me of home. It seemed like Jenny, like Alison, had some of the same interests as me.

"So, how many people live in this house?" Alison asked.

"Well we have a bit of an odd blended family." Jenny explained. "There's my dad and my brother and then Lily and her two kids, plus her stepson from her second marriage which was ended with her husband's death."

"Your dad looks kind of familiar." I noted.

"That's because he was the singer of the 90s band, Lincoln Hawk." She answered.

"Oh my God, my parents love them." I told her.

"Most people don't remember them." Jenny stated as she went to her computer.

"What are you doing?" I questioned.

"Just checking Gossip Girl." The blonde replied. The two of us stared at her blankly. "You two really aren't from here. It's the most influential gossip site in New York City. Part of the appeal is the mystery of her identity."

"But your computer has admin on it." Alison declared. Jenny suddenly looked horrified. "This is your website."

"You cannot tell anyone about this." Jenny pleaded. This could be a point where Ali would blackmail someone. However, I decided that for once, I was not going to let her do that.

"We won't." I promised, before looking at Alison. "There's only one condition. As long as none of our secrets end up on this site, your secret will remain safe."

"You know we could just leave and pretend none of this ever happened." Alison suggested. "We probably won't even be in New York for much longer anyway."

"Why do I get the feeling that you two have a lot of secrets between the two of you?" Jenny asked. "You know this site is more about exposure than anything else."

"Well we don't need any of that." Alison remarked. Granted, a website that seemed to be exclusively for New York City, possibly even just Manhattan didn't seem like it could be used to find us and I wasn't even sure if they were considering that the fact that we could have run away. "This school thing probably isn't even a good idea."

"Jenny, your father said that you wanted to talk to me about something." A woman with blonde interrupted. She was standing in the doorway. I assumed that she was Jenny's stepmother Lily. Jenny looked like she wasn't sure if she wanted to talk.

"Hi, I'm Alice and this is my friend Vivian." I stated. "We met Jenny at a café and she said that you might be able to get us into her school. I'm not even sure if it was a joke or not, but she brought us here."

"I see, and where are you going to school now?" Lily asked.

"We're kind of not." I admitted. "In fact, we have no transcripts or proof of identity. We also can't have anyone talk to our old school either."

"I must ask: did either of us commit a violent crime?" The woman inquired.

"No." Alison declared.

"Well I can't get you into the school. You will be required to pass a placement test. I can probably get the school officials to overlook everything, but it will be up to you to get into the school." She said. "Of course, I suppose the bigger question is where are you currently staying? I can't have you living on the streets, especially since the colder weather is coming in."

"We don't need anywhere to stay." Alison replied. I wasn't sure how I felt about staying in a stranger's house.

"I was going to offer you a hotel room since it would be beneficial for both of us." Lily remarked.

"We could do a hotel." I replied.

We soon headed back to the Fitzgerald Theater and picked up our things which were hidden in a pair of suitcases in the closet. We didn't have a lot of things that weren't essential. I only had four pairs of shoes and I think Ali had five.

"Are you sure that you want to do this?" She asked. "It would be so much easier to stay hidden if we're not living the high life at a fancy hotel and a fancy private school."

"This would probably be our only chance to actually go to school." I said. "Considering that we're down to our last $500, we don't have a lot of options. Yes, we could leave, but we'd still need to buy things. This is free room and board. Probably the only other option would be going to a boarding school somewhere and trying to convince them to let us in and I don't think the money we have would cut it. We can't do much better than this."

"Okay, but we still need to be ready to bail if things go wrong." Ali stated.

So, yeah, this is kind of a Gossip Girl crossover, at least for the moment. I was toying with the idea ever since last chapter. They are in Manhattan after all. Please don't forget to review.


	4. In the Name of the Queen

I woke up in the morning and headed to the shower. I needed to get ready for school. Alison and I had both done well on our placement tests. My parents had talked about sending me to private school before. It would be different for sure. As I washed myself, I began to think of how nice it was to sleep in a bed again. Even though there were two beds, Ali and I were sharing a bed. It felt nice sleeping close to her. It was weird because I never really liked other people in my bed before. I wondered if it was because it was a different bed.

I got out of the shower and began to get dressed in my uniform. The school was different as it allowed students to take liberties with their uniforms. Of course, being new, I wanted to stick to the basics. I slid my skirt up my legs as I noticed Ali waking up.

"Good morning." I greeted her.

"Ugh, why did I agree to this school thing? I liked being able to sleep in." She complained.

"So, you're not going to try to stand out too much, are you?" I asked. "Things don't need to be like they were last year."

"You know I kind of like Jenny." She said. "I actually want to make sure that she doesn't turn out like me. Being the most popular girl in school can be a bit of a dangerous path. If she doesn't be careful, it could lead to her doing horrible things."

"So, are you saying that you're sorry for some of the horrible things that you've done?" I asked.

"Well I'm not proud of the bullying, or fat-shaming Hanna, even though I think it has been working." She responded as she started to get dressed.

"Did you just call it fat-shaming?" I asked.

"Yes, it's when you make someone uncomfortable for being fat." She replied. "Are you really going to do that leather jacket thing?"

"I'm not doing it because I think it's cool. I'm doing it because I like wearing leather." I pointed out as I slipped the jacket on. "Though, a goth girl being the most popular girl in school does make me happy."

"I thought goths weren't supposed to be happy?" She joked. I rolled my eyes. "I don't want to follow a trend. I like to make my own."

'But you look so good in leather." I declared with a pout.

"That's not going to work on me." She said as I kept pouting. "Damn it. Fine. I'll wear the jacket, but only if you stop using your cuteness as a weapon."

"Okay." I agreed as I gave her a silver leather jacket and she put it on. "Now, come on. We need to go meet Jenny and Eric for breakfast."

"You know I can't believe that there are gay best friends in real life." She stated as we grabbed our bags and walked out into the hall.

"So do you think we can use Gossip Girl to figure out who A is?" I questioned.

"I doubt it." She replied. "If it wasn't just restricted to New York, maybe, but it's too small even though our school probably has more people than all of Rosewood."

"Well do you have any idea how we're going to find out who it is?" I asked.

"It's a tricky process. We'd have to do it in a way that doesn't alert them to where we are." She explained. "I know you want to go home, but we're in this school now, so we may as well just do it for at least a few weeks. We'll probably want to stay the whole semester at least. We've committed to this school and even though it's a lie, we should honor the commitment."

We then went to the café and found Jenny was there.

"I see you're wearing the jackets." She commented.

"It's not because of you. It was her idea." Ali stated. "Her face is irresistible."

"Reminds me of how I got my brother to do things when I was younger." Jenny remarked. "Well, I'm glad that you are wearing them, because I made them."

"You made these?" Alison responded. "You didn't tell us that when you gave them to us."

"Well I found out that as a designer, more people are likely to wear your clothes before they know that you made them, at least until you make it big." Jenny declared. "Do you like them?"

"They're great." I answered. "They look like they were made by a designer."

I knew that this was something that Hanna would be so jealous of. She loved fashion designers, even though she was generally too big to wear their clothes. I wondered if that could be considered a good reason to lose weight.

When we got to school, I couldn't help but notice how different Constance Billard was from Rosewood High. Yes, it had some similarities, but it was so much more elegant. I wasn't sure what it was, but I kind of felt like a movie star entering the building. I also heard some whispering. I didn't need to hear it, because I knew exactly what it was about. People wanted to know who we were.

"I told my brother about our arrangement." Jenny whispered. "Anything you want to be a secret will remain a secret. I do hope that you eventually trust me enough to tell me your real names though."

I found out that one thing that Lily couldn't manipulate was our schedules. I had to go to some classes without Ali and it made me feel a little bit weird. It was the first time that we had been separated since we got here. It made me uncomfortable, but I would have to deal with it. It wasn't like Ali was going to go anywhere without me. She wouldn't leave me alone because I didn't know how to deal with the city.

"That's one of them," A girl told one of her friends. "Who is she?"

"Why don't you go talk to her?" Her friend asked her. I never thought that anyone would be afraid to talk to me. It might have been because Ali was just the most popular girl in the freshman class, while Jenny was the most popular girl in the whole school. I wondered if I should just go over and talk to them. Before I could do anything, one of girls was in front of me. How had she done that so quickly without me noticing?

"Um, hi." I greeted her nervously.

"What's your name?" She asked. She had short, bushy black hair.

"I'm Alice." I declared.

"How do you know Jenny Humphrey?" She questioned. "Has she asked you to do her dry-cleaning?"

"No…" I replied. "Is this really such a big deal that I'm friends with her?"

"She's the queen of the school. I'm one of her biggest fans." She explained. "She doesn't have friends. She has subjects."

That didn't sound like her. Granted, I didn't know her, but she didn't seem like the type to boss people around. I would have to talk to her when I got the chance.

I was finally able to reunite with Alison at lunch. I noticed Jenny was sitting with a group of girls that she didn't seem to be that interested in. It looked kind of strange.

"It's like she doesn't even like those girls." Ali commented.

"Maybe she doesn't." I replied. "I got some information. Here the most popular girl is called the queen. Jenny was given the title, but it seems that there are certain aspects that she doesn't like. It's like being queen isn't all that it's cracked up to be. We can talk to her about it after school."

"Or we could talk to her right now." She declared as she grabbed my hand and the two of us walked over to her. "Hi Jenny."

"Vivian, Alice." Jenny remarked in surprise.

"You can't talk to her." One of the girls around her declared. "Noobs don't get to talk to the queen."

"Leave us." Jenny told the girls. She definitely didn't like them. The girls dispersed with frowns on their faces.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"I kind of have certain responsibilities here." Jenny admitted. "This morning was the first time that I walked in with other girls beside me. They were always behind me. A lot of people don't want to be treated as equals for some reason. I don't know if they're stupid or just shallow. I'm pretty sure that the two of might have targets on your backs. These girls are vicious and will do anything to get into my good graces."

That definitely did not sound like Rosewood. No one really wanted to get into Alison's good graces, except for Mona. It was just the five of us and really not anyone else. There was never anyone else.

I also couldn't help but wonder what a group of high school girls could possibly do, especially when we had someone like Alison. I knew that if there was a war, Alison would win, but I didn't want her to. Such things would really have negative effects on Alison and probably myself as well. I didn't know the things that I was capable of because I never had been put in such positions before. Also, I wondered what good would even come from it? Surely those girls would have seen _Mean Girls_ and knew that it wouldn't end well for anyone.

"But you have the biggest weapon." I pointed out. "If there's one thing that the girls worship more than you, it's you."

"I suppose I could, but none of these girls are interesting enough to put on Gossip Girl. They're pretty generic. I forget their names half the time." Jenny explained. "By the way, has anyone said anything about the jackets?"

"People have been more concerned about the fact that we're friends with you." Alison replied.

"Well I've never been very good at making friends." She admitted. "This may come as a bit of a surprise, but I haven't always been super rich. I mean was comfortable, upper middle class or even lower upper class, but our finances greatly increased when my dad married Lily. I used to live in Brooklyn."

"I hear Brooklyn is nice." I commented. It was probably the best place to get pizza in New York.

"It is. We still have a loft there." Jenny confirmed. "So, I have an invite. How about I let you two write up your own introduction. That way, there will nothing that you don't want on the site."

"You have to let Alice do it." Alison declared. "She's a great writer."

After school, Jenny took us back to her place. She signed into the site and left it blank.

"Okay, before I put anything down, I need to know everything about this character." I stated. "Who is Gossip Girl?"

"Why do I get a feeling that my brother would really like you?" The blonde quipped. "Gossip Girl is a little vapid and also obsessed with popularity and secrets. And she also signs every post, XOXO Gossip Girl."

"Okay." I replied as I began to think. I was pretty sure that I knew what to put. I just needed the right words.

 _Hey, Upper East Side. Gossip Girl, here and it looks like things are changing at Constance. Queen J is still looking as stylish as ever, but what's really drawing my attention is the fact that she apparently has some new friends. My sources tell me the blonde is Alice Brandon, a sophomore and the brunette is Vivian Darkbloom, also a sophomore, but that's about all I know. What I do know is it's been a while since J has treated anyone as an equal. So who are these girls and what secrets do they have to tell? Check back to find out. XOXO Gossip Girl._

At that point, I couldn't help but realize how good that felt. I completely immersed myself in the character as I wrote. All I could think of was that I wanted to do it again.

So, Aria got to experience what it was like to be Gossip Girl and she may be headed down a darker path. Also one of the girls is going to go on a date in one of the coming chapters. Please don't forget to review.


End file.
